Access Trumps Ownership

In our ever-evolving world of consumption, we are learning that what really matters is the experience that a product delivers, not the ownership of that product. As Theodore Levitt said, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole."

Access Trumps Ownership, inspired by a quote from Kevin Kelly, delivers news and opinions on the emerging market of collaborative consumption, the access economy, and the shared economy.

5.23.2011

The New York Times reviewed the Consumer Price Index on a year-over-year basis, comparing March 2010 to March 2011. Since I love any well-organized, graphical data, I thought I would share and comment on a couple of data points that relate to and support our expanding Shared Economy.

5.17.2011

Volkswagen is helping to make carsharing programs a trend for automakers with its launch of Quicar in Hanover, Germany. The Quicar program will include 200 fuel-efficient VW Golf Bluemotion vehicles at 50 locations throughout the city. The program will operate as a traditional carsharing program, similar to Zipcar. It is planned to launch later this year.

5.15.2011

After finding Solar Mosaic at Shareable, my mind is sufficiently blown away. Solar Mosaic mashes solar energy with crowdfunding to diversify the burdensome upfront capital requirements across the community. Quoting Buckminster Fuller, Solar Mosaic believes "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Based in northern California, the new company creates a marketplace that anyone can use to create solar projects and finance them through their communities, locally and online.

Annie Leonard is a longtime thought-leader of the sustainability movement who has always made a strong and compelling argument against our system of consumption. In many ways her work makes her strong candidate to be one of the four busts on a hypothetical Mount Rushmore of Collaborative Consumption. I just stumbled on a great little fact of hers in a image on Unstash.